


Finders Keepers

by relised



Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Jack was totally an eno kid, M/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, after the void, mentions of past Sammy and Jack, sammy makes his own family, sammy's friends become Jack's friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-21 00:20:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15545463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/relised/pseuds/relised
Summary: Miraculously they get Jack out alive.Probably more surprisingly they all make it out alive. Had someone told Sammy they'd open the Devil's Doorstep, face down the Shadow Maker, and rescue not one but five captives being held in the void without a single one of them dying, he would have laughed in their face. But as it was, there were only a few minor injuries.****A collection of Sammy's thoughts waiting for Jack to wake up and how quickly Sammy's friends adopt Jack.





	Finders Keepers

**Author's Note:**

> I'm going a little stir crazy waiting for the hiatus to be over. So I present to you: This rambling mess. Enjoy.

Miraculously they get Jack out alive.

Probably more surprisingly they all make it out alive. Had someone told Sammy they'd open the Devil's Doorstep, face down the Shadow Maker, and rescue not one but five captives being held in the void without a single one of them dying, he would have laughed in their face. But as it was, there were only a few minor injuries.

Sammy had carried a still Jack out of the cavern, noting that he could count every single knob of his damn spine as he walked. Even in his unconscious state, Jack curled closer into Sammy as if he knew this was his safe person. Sammy and Lily had shared a single look at the ambulance before she had nodded, taking a step back so Sammy could climb in.

"Family only, buddy," The EMT had said, gently pressing a hand to Sammy's chest. Sammy had sighed, pulling the engagement ring he had taken to wearing on a cord around his neck ever since the Frickard Incident.

"He's my fiancé," Sammy said in what Ben would call his 'Dad Voice', and the EMT had nodded, stepping aside to allow Sammy's entrance. As he dropped heavily onto the bench, he could see Ben half carrying, half dragging an hysterical Debbie out of the Cavern followed by Troy and Ron, each toting a man Sammy didn't recognize. Prediction Woods was bustling with chaos, but Sammy only had eyes for the sleeping man on the cot in front of him.

****  
Sammy is squeezed between the wall and the hospital bed, squeezing Jack's hand like it's his lifeline. He had momentarily came to in the ambulance and had immediately lashed out, clawing at his face and his neck. They had sedated him, but the doctors still thought it safer to keep him restrained until he was calmer. The white straps around his wrists made Sammy's chest hurt; every time he closed his eyes all he could see was those nights all those years ago.

Five years ago, Sammy was living on coffee and energy bars, fighting to keep up the Shotgun act by day and spending his night sitting awake on his laptop. He's sit in the bed next to Jack, his hands shaking as he researched the symptoms of mania and schizophrenia or looked up the best mental health facilities in Northern California or Southern Oregon. He'd looked up ways to talk to your loved ones about getting help and the California laws for having someone involuntarily committed.

There had been one day in late October when Sammy had loaded Jack into the car, telling them he'd had a surprise for him. Jack had peppered him with questions as he took the interstate north, laughing easily as Sammy denied every guess. The laughing had stopped, however, three hours later when Sammy had steered the car into the Twin Valley Mental Health Facility just south of the California and Oregon boarder.

That had been the biggest fight Jack and Sammy ever had.

Sammy could remember Jack screaming at him in the parking lot, spit flying from his lips in his anger. Sammy had stooped so low as to trying to physically drag Jack into the building, trying in vein to pin his boyfriend's arms to his side. But Jack had always been bigger than Sammy; even now, years after he stopped playing football he still had the athletic build that Sammy always envied. The fight had ended when Jack ducked out of Sammy's arms, spinning on his foot and punching the man in the face.

"I'm fine, Sammy! I told you there is nothing wrong with me!" Jack had yelled, his chest heaving and betrayal in his eyes.

Sammy had had a black eye for a week. Jack started sleeping in the guest bedroom that night.

"Sammy," a voice said, and he jumped before his eyes focused on a worried Ben. Ben tilted his head to the doctor standing in front of them who was clearly waiting for an answer.

"I'm sorry, can you repeat that?" Sammy asked, his cheeks burning.

"Does Mr. Wright have any past medical history?" Sammy swallowed thickly, wishing Lily was there. She would know the answers. Sammy cleared his throat, mentally shaking himself out of his funk. This was _his_ fiancé. He could do this.

"Depression. He was on Prozac before he...before. I don't know if...I doubt he's been..."

"I understand, Mr. Stevens," the doctor said. He typed a few things in the electronic medical chart. "Any past surgeries?"

"He had his ACL repaired in college. And I think he's had his tonsils out." Sammy rubbed idly at the back of his neck, not taking his eyes away from Jack.

The doctor had continued typing, every once and awhile asking questions to fill in the blanks of the story. For once, Sammy was thankful for the crack pot theories everyone believe in King Falls and the surrounding area; no place else would understand Sammy and Ben's blabbering about the Void and the Shadow Maker. They'd have them in straight jackets faster then you could say halodol. Finally the doctor had pushed the computer away from him, crossing his hands in his lap.

"Mr. Wright is very lucky," he started, and Sammy couldn't stop the sigh of relief that escaped his lips. "All of his scans have came back mostly clear. There are a couple broken bones that look like they were broken several times and then left to heal improperly. His left leg and his right wrist. He'll need surgery to repair those, but I would like to wait until he's more stable. He is also severely malnourished. We've started him on tube feeds in an effort to combat that while he's still unconscious.

"We can't say for sure what he has endured over the past five years, but we can assume it's been a traumatic experience. For his safety, I find it best to keep him sedated for awhile. Once he's had some time, we'll slowly wake him to keep from shocking his system." Sammy had nodded, not really hearing anything the man said, because Jack was here. Jack was back and Sammy was never letting him go.

****  
They kept him sedated for two weeks. In a way, it was better than the alternative. The few times he had broken through the fog, he had woke up screaming, trying to claw off his skin while tying to pull the feeding tube from his nose. If Sammy never had to hear the marble in the garbage disposal sound of Jack screaming around damaged vocal cords again, it would be too soon. The doctor said it looked like the damage was from screaming his throat raw. Sammy tried not to think about it.

Lily wasn't taking the whole ordeal well. And if Sammy was honest, he wasn't that surprised. For the past five years, Lily Wright had thought her brother was dead. She had stopped looking for him, stopped waiting for him to come home. And then all a sudden they were pulling her brother from the rubble, very much alive. If Sammy had a choice, he probably wouldn't be taking it well, either.

Lily spent most nights drunk, draining Sammy's stash of bourbon before moving onto the vodka, then to the Fireball before finally settling for Sofa King Beer because there was nothing else in the house. When Ben came to visit, he whispered promises that she would be okay. Emily would put her to bed every night, cleaning up the empty bottles as the stone cold journalist cried for her brother in her sleep.

Sammy felt terrible; he knew he should be the one taking care of her. She was practically his sister-in-law, she was his responsibility. But Sammy only had the emotional stability to take care of one Wright at a time, and Lily had drawn the short stick. If you'd ask her, she always drew the short stick.

On her rare, almost sober moments, Lily would sneak into Jack's hospital room. Sammy would wake from his cat nap to see Lily sat with he forehead pressed to her brother's, whispering all her secrets that only a sibling could understand. She looked so vulnerable during those moments that Sammy didn't have the heart to pry. He's squeeze his eyes shut, pretending to be asleep until he heard her stumbling out of the room.

****  
Ben tries to keep him up to date on the case. Debbie was the only one awake and lucid. There was a young girl named Molly Walter; she was only 21 and had been missing from Big Pine for two years. One of the men was the Australian they heard on the tape dropped off at the station in Sammy's first year in town. The last guy was one of Ben's former class mates; his name was Jaime Ross and Ben said the guy had been close with Doyle. When he had disappeared six years prior, everyone had just assumed he'd gotten high and wondered off somewhere where he eventually got himself killed.

Troy had won the election just prior to their rescue attempt and now had more work than he knew what to do with. Before they had opened the void, they had breached the Science Institute. He had been horrified to realize that there was more than one Shadow Maker; the monster was something manufactured behind those hidden doors. There were various testing areas, where willing "volunteers" were being haunted by the creature, screaming out for help anytime something moved outside their enclosure.

Mr Thompson was the whistle blower Sammy always expected him to be. He had called the station again just before the tower was ready to go back up and had promised he knew how to find Jack. He was the one that taught them to open the Void, how to do it without getting caught themselves. When the other scientists had been arrested, the former Science teacher had watched from a distance before climbing in his new car provided by Agent Spears and the Witness Protection Program.

The fact that there were more of those...those things out there made Sammy's stomach turn. How was he supposed to keep Jack safe when at any time a Shadow Maker could just fall from the sky and take his fiancé back to the void.

Sammy spent almost all of his time plastered to the side of Jack's bed, holding his hand so tight that he was sure it would hurt the man if he was awake. He would sleep next to the bed, his head resting on the side of the bed, one hand in Jack's and the other idly running through Jack's too long hair. His back constantly hurt from the gesture, but he would never dream of leaving. He thought if he kept ahold of the man, nothing could steal him away again.

Ben would come twice a week, forcing Sammy to go home long enough to shower and have a real meal. Ben would stay next to Jack, promising this man he's never met that everything was going to be okay and that no one would ever hurt him again. Sammy's chest had ached; how had he been lucky enough to have Ben Arnold in his life? The man was a saint.

****  
The hospital staff never forced him to leave, and Sammy could only hope that Herschel never found out. If he closed his eyes, he could imagine the old man raving about the hospital being Communist Sympathizers. Sammy wouldn't blame him though, the old softie was the only real family Cecil had left outside of a daughter who lived out of state that never came home.

Sammy made friends with the nurses; there were mostly three that rotated taking care of Jack. The youngest of the three, a girl named Alexis had offered to help Sammy cut Jack's hair and shave the lumberjack beard he was rocking. "Maybe it will make him feel better when he wakes up," she had said gently as she cut the long stringy hair. Sammy had given her a teary eyed smile as he lathered shaving cream onto the gaunt cheeks.

Norma, an older nurse who Ben said he was terrified of as a child suggest Sammy talk to Jack, to play some of his favorite music. "You never know what he can hear," she said, squeezing Sammy's shoulder on her way out of the room.

Sammy didn't know what he was supposed to say, which was hilarious coming from a talk radio host. So he'd pull up some of Jack's favorite music on his phone, quietly playing Death Cab for Cutie and Blink 182 and Dashboard Confessional while hoping Jack could hear. He had flashbacks of a shaggy haired Jack in college always dressed in black and reciting the words to cringeworthy emo songs in a perfect deadpan voice.

"I'm an emo kid, non conforming as can be. You'd be emo, too, if you looked just like me," he would chant, before dissolving in giggles on Sammy's bed. Sammy had rolled his eyes, catching the boy's lips in a desperate kiss before Jack had jumped off the bed to straighten his bangs before class.

When Sammy worked his way through the playlist he had made, he forced himself to talk. Nothing about the Void, of course, nothing about the past five years. Instead, he told Jack stories about when they first met; how Sammy had been so deep in the closet, terrified that someone would find out his secret that when he met Jack it had physically hurt him. He told Jack how jealous he had been of the boys on the football team who got to tackle Jack, feeling his hard body under their hands. He told Jack how he had been terrified the night Jack had pushed him against the wall outside their old college studio, asking if Sammy was gay. He told Jack how surprised he was that instead of being angry when Sammy sadly nodded his head, Jack had kissed him rather than punch him.

Sammy told Jack about his new friends; about Ben Arnold who single handedly brought Emily Potter back from the rainbow lights and single handedly kept Sammy alive when things had gotten so bad he couldn't get out of bed. He told of Emily Potter, the town librarian who had brought down a misogynistic cult after being gaslighted by one of their members. He talked of Deputy (now Sheriff) Troy, the man who was like a Labrador Retriever stuck in a human's body; fiercely loyal even if he didn't have the most common sense. He whispered his confessions about Ron Begley, a bear of a man who knew Sammy was gay years before he was willing to admit it. Ron was the man who kept him from drinking himself stupid some nights when Sammy just needed someone to be there. He told of Herschel and Cecil, the two men with the strongest platonic relationship that Sammy had ever seen.

"I hated this town when I first got here; I hated the people and the stupid stories and the fact that you were so obsessed with it," Sammy whispered into Jack's hairline, trying to make himself as small as possible as he squeezed in between Jack and bed rail. "But these people...They've become my family. You know I never thought I'd have much of one once my parents kicked me out. I had you, and Lily until we didn't have Lily any more. But these people, Ben and Emily, and Troy, and Ron, and Herschel and Cecil. They've all been there for me when I needed them, even when I didn't want them to be. I can't wait for your to meet my family, Jack. Our family."

****  
The doctor's start weaning the sedatives off during the third week. Sammy was hopeful when Jack didn't instantly start screaming. That had to be a step in the right direction, right?

Lily finally sobers enough to be seen in public and she starts spending all of her time in the second chair squeezed into the too small hospital room. Her and Sammy talk quietly over Jack's sleeping frame, trying to come up with plans for after Jack's better.

"Are...are you going to take him back to DC with you?" Sammy asked quietly after Lily starts listing off therapists and physical therapy and follow up doctors appointments. The question stops Lily dead in her tracks, her mouth gaping open slightly.

"Are you coming to DC?" She asked finally and Sammy shook his head, not meeting her eyes. "Then why would I be taking your fiancé to DC?"

"I...He's...He's your brother and this is all my fault. I figured you'd want to get him away from me as soon as possible," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. Lily scoots forward on her chair, reaching across the bed to grab Sammy's free hand.

"You really are an idiot, Stevens," she said, and Sammy's head shot up so fast he was sure he had whiplash. "Jack loves you, Sammy. He's always loved you and I was an ass to not accept that. I was just mad because Jack had someone else in his life but me. And I wasn't fair to you."

Sammy stared at Lily like she had three heads. Finally he cleared his throat and whispered "who are you and what have you done with Lily Wright?" He had just enough time to duck as she threw her book at his head.

****  
Jack woke slowly, an obnoxious beeping sound pulling him into the living. He blinked his eyes open, a messy bun obscuring half his vision where someone was resting against the side of the bed. Jack lifted a shaky hand to his neck, sighing with relief when he realized the metal collar he had worn for the past five years was gone. He gently ran his hand over his face, frowning at the oxygen cannula and tube in his nose.

Jack let his head fall to the side, trying to figure out where he was. This wasn't the cage he'd been kept in; the surface below him was soft and warm and he could see no bars around him. Was this...was this a hospital? What kind of shit was the Shadow Maker pulling now?

Jack tried to speak, but his voice came out in a harsh whisper. The body next to him flinched, before sitting up quickly.

"Jack," the man said, his eyes wide in shock. As his vision cleared, Jack realized he recognized the man sitting next to him. The man was thinner than Jack remember, more wore down with bags under his eyes. His hair was long and pulled up in a messy bun at the top of his head. But even with the subtle changes Jack knew this man. This was his Sammy.

"Sammy," he whimpered reaching out his hand for any purchase on his fiancé' skin. Sammy met him half way, pulling the man close to his chest and promising he would never let go. His throat burned as he tried to speak, but he had to get the words out. "I'm so sorry, Sammy. I tried to come back, I tried to get out but I couldn't do it on my own. I'm so sorry."

"Shh, it's okay. It's my fault, I should have believed you. I should have fought harder. Oh God Jack, I should have fought harder for you." They were both crying, squeezing each other so hard as if if they let go the world would end.

"But you got me out in the end," Jack whispered, pressing a kiss to Sammy's neck just below his ear. "You saved me. But you weren't alone...There was this short guy and a pretty girl that was a bit taller than him. And a Sheriff, and Lily, and a burly guy...I...Sammy, who were those people?"

"Better never let Ben hear you call him short," Sammy said, smothering his smile. "Those are my friends...My family. I made one of my own here in King Falls while waiting for you to get back. They all helped; fuck I was here for five years and hadn't found anything. Ben worked for six months and here you are..."

****  
It took awhile for Jack to be "okay." Okay being a relative term since he was still regularly waking up in the middle of the night screaming and clawing at an invisible force that only he could see. Sammy would gather him in his arms, gently whispering to him that everything was going to be okay.

Jack had surgery to repair the break in his leg and his wrist. He and Sammy were stuck using Emily's guest bedroom until his leg healed since she was the only one with a ground floor apartment. He spent most of his time on the couch with his leg propped up on the coffee table, watching mind numbing television as Sammy and the "adults" talked about his mental health. Adults was a joke, he was older than most of them by at least 10 years. They needed something to focus on, so he kept his mouth shut.

Sammy and Ben finally had to go back to work, and there was no way Jack was going to sleep without Sammy. So he'd stay awake with Emily, listening to their men charming the town of King Falls through the radio. Sometimes Emily would call in, easing the anxiety you could hear in Sammy's voice the longer he stayed away from Jack.

Some nights they'd binge a new show that Jack had missed while he was gone. He was surprised to hear they'd made a new season of Twin Peaks and had insisted they watch it. They only made it two episodes in before he realized there were one too many connections to King Falls and had quickly asked Emily to change to something else.

Sometimes, when he was very tired, he'd whisper to Emily what had happened to him in the Void. She never interrupted him, never asked him to talk about things that made him uncomfortable. In turn, she'd tell him what she remembered from her time with the rainbow lights. After his first month "home," Jack could honestly say Emily Potter was his best friend.

Some days while Sammy slept and Emily was at work, Ron would show up to keep him company. They'd play endless games of war, before moving onto board games. Ron didn't make Jack talk, instead telling him stories of growing up in King Falls and about a lake created names Kingsy. The misfortunes of the Dark always made Jack laugh.

Once his leg was healed, Troy would take Jack along for rides in his cruiser. He said since he was the Sherif now, no one could tell him what to do. If he wanted to take his friend for a ride, he'd take his friend for a ride. Jack had puffed his chest in pride when Troy called him a friend. That's something Jack had been missing.

Ben would bring home uncut commercials, asking for Jack's opinion on editing them. Jack knew it was a bluff and Ben was just looking to give Jack something to do. The commercials Ben put together sounded just fine. But Jack would sit next to the boy, clicking away at an old MacBook that looked an inch away from death. He stowed away a mental note to talk to Sammy about getting him a new one.

More and more as Jack healed, he made more friends with the locals of King Falls. He had a long discussion about portals with Doyle Bevins; he'd spent hours talking to Herschel and Cecil about WW2 and the various arguments the men had had over the years (Cecil had woke up a week after Jack, and if Jack was being honest he was glad the attention was pulled from him for a while).

He spent mornings eating pancake puppies with Troy and the radio crew at Rose's, a creepy older man named Chet hitting on the young waitress. Jack didn't know what Sassy's House of Ass was, but he hoped he never found out. Lily hung around for awhile before taking off back to DC. They started talking on the phone every night, just in case.

One night, shortly after Jack and Sammy moved back into Sammy's apartment, Jack crashed down tiredly onto the couch. Sammy lifted his arm and Jack easily burrowed into his side. Sammy was clicking through a real estate site looking for a new home back in California. The lease was going to run up soon and they were going to have to find someplace to go.

"I've been thinking," Jack said, walking his fingers up and down Sammy's thighs.

"Well that's new," Sammy muttered, snorting when Jack hit him.

"I'm serious. What if we stayed here?" Sammy froze, slowly turning his head to look at Jack's.

"You'd want to stay here? After...After everything that happened."

"The Science Institute has been shut down. I'm fi-I'm getting better. You have a job you love here. You have friends here. And Sammy, I think they're my friends too. Let's...Let's stay here. I can probably get a job producing at the station, and-" Sammy quickly closed his laptop, manhandling Jack into his lap.

"Thank you..." he whispered, pressing a deep kiss to his fiancé' lips. "I love you, Jack Wright."

"I love you, Sammy Stevens."


End file.
